What is it about owning the D&D franchise that makes a gaming company stupid?

[professionalhenchman]

So, after hearing about the latest snafu involving Wizards of the Coast deciding to pull from sale all the pdf copies of all their books due to concerns about piracy, I find myself wondering what it is about owning D&D that makes a company seem to try to go out of their way to annoy their customers.  WotC has pulled a number of PR blunders over the last few months, and this one is as big as it is among players because they've squandered all their trust - if they didn't have a history of delivering promised new online content half-assed and behind schedule, people would be fine with their promises of a rerelease of digitized content in a new format coming when they can figure out a good DRM scheme (never mind that DRM's a dumb idea in the first place).  The way they should have handled this one is to have the new setup ready before pulling the plug on the old one, but they don't seem competent enough for that.  They're still not as bad at dealing with customers as TSR was when they were known as They Sue Regularly, but they don't seem far off.
Overall, I can't say I care much - I'm indifferent to 4e, and don't otherwise buy any of their products these days, though if I'd known they were selling pdfs of 1st and 2nd ed stuff, I might have gone shopping at some point.  I'll just be curious to watch over the next few years to see if we get another company ending up taking over the brand and see if they can manage any better at customer interaction.

Comments

[barnabas-truman.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I hope they don't find out about scanners and photocopiers; they might decide to stop selling printed material altogether!

[whalejudge.livejournal.com]

WotC's run by a pack of idiots.

As for 1st/2nd edition--I've got a copy of most of it. There are a few 1st modules I don't have, and almost nothing of DarkSun, but otherwise I think I've got it. Something you wanted to take a look at?

I'd love to take it over. I'd strip the D&D name from 4e (still sell it as something until those tanked), rebrand 3.x as "D&D20", and release "AD&D Classic" to reinterest my fellow grognards. Each of the 3 systems gets a setting all to itself--and the former 4e gets one created specifically for it. I'd restore Dragon to it's pre-2000 status as a "gaming magazine" supporting all aspects of the hobby of roleplaying, including accepting articles from the public (guess how the Forgotten Realms' material was originally published?) and including support for out-of-print systems. I'd restore Dungeon to accepting and supporting adventures for ANY of my systems. I'd consult with the creators of the published settings as to WHICH system they wanted used for their settings. If I wasn't using a setting, I'd happily license it to someone else for use with one of the three systems (it'd cost extra to license for either of the others) and the creator gets first refusal. I'd be willing to at least talk about licensing other settings. I'd lay down law on the novel front--no world changing events without that being the pre-directed purpose of the novel. I'd be looking into getting into the MMORPG market with secondary settings for each system. Track down whoever has the rights to movie and TV, get them back, and see about getting something in production.

Sorry for the rant...

[kevinbunny.livejournal.com]

Heh. Sounds about right.

Personally, I think they really shot their foot off with 4e. They've ripped out most of the roleplay element in favor of 'here's what your character can do in a fight'. It's going back to Chainmail, is what it is.

3rd ed/D20... meh. Not bad. A necessary retooling that did correct many of the problems that 2nd edition had, especially concerning things like non-combat skills.

I know some of the grognards that liked 2nd ed are playing HackMaster. While it's a bit of a spoof on AD&D, with rules the density of neutronium, it captures a lot of the same flavor of the Old Times.

Personally I prefer GURPS. Not too fond of the retoolng they did for *their* Fourth Edition - too much focus on combat and genre-hopping dimensional travel - but it's overall an efficient, happy system.

[whalejudge.livejournal.com]

See, I'm a grognard who is playing 1st edition, and would be playing second if I could find players, and not only loves HackMaster, but cowrote a supplement for it (Huzzah for Hackjammer!)

[kevinbunny.livejournal.com]

Ah. See then, you should have used 'Grognard' rather than just 'grognard'. That sort of thing indicates that one is actually Named-Level, rather than say, a sub-apprentice grognard lite.